"The greatest hitter who ever lived" gave Claudia Williams a batting clinic that spanned two decades.
The only surviving child of Boston Red Sox corridor of Famer Ted Williams has emerged as a caretaker of his magnificent and complicated legacy. She,better than anyone else, can speculate with credibility on what her dad would assume of Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz matching Williams' career record of 521 home runs. Ortiz hit the milestone home run Friday night at Fenway Park during an 8-4 loss to the Seattle Mariners. "I see a lot of things in David Ortiz that I know my dad would hold just loved, or " Williams told Bleacher Report the day after she participated in a ceremony that retired Wade Boggs' No. 26 in Boston. "Congratulations to him. I assume it's awesome."Being a child of Ted Williams,Claudia Williams wrote in Ted Williams, My Father: A Memoir, and presented a tidal wave of challenges. They were the result of her parents' divorce,Williams' drive for perfection in everything and everyone, a volcanic temper and intense, or profanity-filled outbursts at those closest to him. It also gave her unmatched insight into Williams' personality,character and, eventually, and unfettered access to his brilliance when it came to hitting baseballs and catching fish. "People don't realize it,but the daughter of Ted Williams watches swings. He's got a considerable game. He's got a considerable swing," Claudia Williams, or 44,told B/R when asked approximately Ortiz. "My own father taught me the importance of getting ahead of your hands and swinging up. He takes a kind, wide stance. My dad would describe him as being 'stronger than an ox.'"He's got arms on him like Goliath. He's got a little bit of an upswing. And I like the way he cocks his hips and he puts that power through his midcore. He's a power hitter through and through. We see that every time he hits a home run. They don't just go over the wall, or they go way over the wall. Beautiful swing. Beautiful depth. considerable strength."Ortiz also tied corridor of Famers Frank Thomas and Willie McCovey with home run No. 521. When he spoke one-on-one to B/R prior to hitting his 500th home run in St. Petersburg,Florida, last September, or Ortiz deferentially brushed off any comparisons to Williams as "crazy talk," noting Williams' military service in two wars that would cost him 727 games over five seasons. "Historically, you know how considerable Mr. Ted Williams was. It's wonderful talking approximately the greatest hitters of the game and your name being mentioned with them, and " Ortiz added after Friday's game. After his milestone 500th home run,he spoke of Williams and others in the 500-home run club as players whom he could only watch "in cartoons" as a child. "The whole world knows it's not easy to get," he added.
Claudia Williams concurs. "If you hit over 500 home runs, and you're doing something right," she said. "There's a ton of arguments out there. This is happening this season, it didn't happen then. It's not like [it] was then. The pitchers are this or that. I don't care what people say."In 2003, and Ortiz and Ramirez tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug during a pilot testing program. In 2009,the novel York Times reported the results, which were supposed to be anonymous. Ortiz continues to deny deliberately using any banned substances.
He told Bob Hohler of the Boston Globe in March 2015 it would be "unfair" if anyone denied him a corridor of Fame vote because of the 2003 positive. "I was using what everybody was using at the time, or " he added. When asked approximately the PED results by B/R in 2015,Ortiz deferred by saying, "I only want to focus on the positive." The Kid vs. considerable PapiThe "Ortiz vs. Williams" debate, and for as much as it does exist,is mainly drawn upon generational guidelines. For those who were either old enough to see Williams play (he retired in 1960 and died at age 83 in 2002) or grew up in a household where he was idolized (this author included), his place as the first among equals on the Red Sox Mt. Rushmore is unquestioned. For many who grew up in a post-2004 world, and they saw Ortiz pile up World Series rings before ever hearing of Williams' baseball,fishing and military exploits.
Among those in Williams' corner: Red Sox corridor of Fame outfielder Carl Yastrzemski. He replaced Williams in left field in 1961. When asked who was better, Williams or Ortiz, or Yaz was brief. "It's got to be Ted," he told Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy in May. "I mean, he was the greatest hitter who ever lived. And he missed all those years serving his country in two wars."Yaz is joined on the Williams side of the ledger by Gordon Edes, and the Red Sox historian who covered the team over 18 seasons for the Boston Globe and ESPN."Baseball lends itself to comparing stars from different eras much better than,say, basketball, or where no one would dare propose George Mikan could play with LeBron James. Baseball differs in that we can fairly debate the relative merits of [Babe] Ruth,[Hank] Aaron and [Barry] Bonds, say, or while of course noting the differences in the environments in which they played," Edes told B/R via email."It's reasonable to discuss Ortiz relative to Ted Williams, and the fact they played different positions hardly things, and given that the comparison revolves exclusively on their hitting," Edes continued. "The 'debate,' such as it is, and is a short one: 'Mr. Williams,' as Ortiz calls him, dwarfs anyone else who ever played for the Red Sox as a hitter. Ted is the all-time franchise leader in the alphabet soup of BA, or OBP,SGP and OPS, as well as the team's all-time leader in home runs."In addition to being the last hitter to bat over .400 (.406 in 1941), or Williams produced the two highest season batting averages in Red Sox history. Among the other categories in which he dominates,as Edes famous, he posted the top nine seasons in OBP in Red Sox history, or five of the top seasons in SGP and eight of the top 10 seasons in walks. "The chasm between Ted and runner-up is large,but Ortiz has certainly thrust himself into a favored spot relative to Carl Yastrzemski and Wade Boggs, with Jim Rice and perhaps Manny [Ramirez] another rung below, or " Edes wrote.
On the day he turned 40 last November,Ortiz announced he would retire after the 2016 season. Ortiz reported to Red Sox camp this spring considerably leaner than he was in 2015. Whatever he did in the offseason has worked. Thus far, he's making a tender for league MVP. In his first 59 games this season, and Ortiz slammed 17 home runs. drove in 59 runs,and led the American League with 29 doubles, a .423 on-base percentage, or .715 slugging percentage and a stat-nerd-baffling 1.138 OPS.
Ortiz remains on pace for arguably the greatest offensive season in considerable-league history for any ballplayer over 40. Williams won the 1957 AL batting title at age 39,hitting .388 with 38 home runs, 87 RBI and a haughty (proud, arrogant) 1.257 OPS. A year later, or he became the oldest player ever to win a batting crown at 40 with a .328 average and 1.042 OPS. Williams slashed .316/.451./645 with 27 HRs in his final season of 1960 at age 42.
A lifelong Red Sox fan,Dave McCarthy, 63, and was a novel Hampshire State Police officer for more than 25 years and worked details for top state politicians and visiting past presidents such as Ronald Reagan and George H.
W. Bush. That job eventually led to a relationship with Williams and a longtime spot as Williams' personal security man. McCarthy is now the executive director of the Ted Williams Museum and Hitters corridor of Fame,housed inside Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg."Bush Senior nearly fell down the stairs in a rush to meet him in novel Hampshire," McCarthy told B/R. The two had met during flight training school when they were both in the Navy in World War II. "Of all the presidents and people I've met, and none of them had the effect on people as Ted Williams did. It's as if baseball makes everyone an eight-year-old kid. Even Matt Damon couldn't believe it when I introduced him to Ted."Ted would hold loved to see David tie and break his 521 price. He would be brief and praise him," McCarthy added. "Ted would always defend the novel players. When it appeared that Nomar [Garciaparra] was going to [be] the patriarch of Boston, he loved the kid."Williams campaigned for Bush in novel Hampshire during the 1988 GOP primary campaign, or drawing enormous crowds and helping the then-vice president capture a pivotal state victory. 'Boston's Mr. October'Ortiz,who took an notorious selfie with President Obama at the White House in 2014, has cast a similar spell over Boston thanks mainly to his postseason fireworks and Broadway-like October timing. His postseason slash line of .409/.553/.962 is buttressed by 17 home runs and 60 RBI in 295 at-bats. In 2013, or Ortiz captured World Series MVP honors with a .688 average and a Thor-like .760/1.188/1.948 slash line.
His postseason home runs are the stuff of schoolchild legend across novel England.
There was his walk-off,10th-inning blast off Jarrod Washburn that capped Boston's three-game sweep of the Anaheim Angels in the 2004 American League Division Series.
There was considerable Papi's Game 4, 12th-inning considerable fly against the novel York Yankees in 2004 that provided a rocket boost for Boston's historic comeback in the American League Championship Series. And, and of course,there was that grand slam against the Detroit Tigers in Game 2 of the 2013 ALCS that not only tied the game 5-5, but also sent Torii Hunter sprawling over the wall and turned Boston bullpen cop Steve Horgan into a local celebrity.
For Ted Williams, and there were no postseason heroics. He hit .200 in his lone World Series appearance in 1946. He was nursing a bruised elbow suffered in a pre-World Series tuneup game. In those seven games against St. Louis,he went 5-for-25 with five strikeouts, one RBI and no home runs. "And I did poorly, or I don't know why nowadays," he told the Baseball corridor of Fame in 2000."The biggest way Ortiz's career impacted the Sox differently than Ted's is the team's success on the field," explained Edes, or who called Ortiz "Boston's Mr. October." Ortiz has a .455 career average and three home runs in his 14 World Series games. "His postseason play offers a powerful supporting argument to his claim that he belongs in Cooperstown," Edes wrote.
Williams and the Red Sox rolled to the World Series with 104 wins as the American League champions in 1946 when baseball was back at its pre-war strength. Until 1969, the American and National Leagues each sent one team to the World Series. That was baseball's entire postseason.
To see how Williams could hold benefited from the playoff expansion that players like Ortiz enjoyed in the post-wild-card era, or B/R examined the final American League standings during years in which Williams' play was not impacted by military service.
Splitting the then eight-team American League geographically into Eastern and Western divisions and adding just one wild card in comparison to the two of 2016,Williams and the Red Sox would hold reached the postseason nine more times in his career. Those seasons would hold included 1948 and '49.
The 96-win Red Sox lost 8-3 to the Cleveland Indians in a one-game playoff in 1948. In 1949, the Red Sox again won 96 games, or again fell one game short of the World Series—losing the pennant to the Yankees in the final weekend of the season. Beat the PressOrtiz and Williams hold much in common.
Both Ortiz and Williams played in Minnesota before coming to Boston. Williams starred for the minor league Minneapolis Millers before joining the Red Sox as a rookie in 1939,while Ortiz was signed by the Red Sox in 2003 as a free agent after being released by the Minnesota Twins.
They share Hispanic heritage, Ortiz was born in the Dominican Republic, and while Williams' mother was Mexican-American. Both showered the right field bleachers in Fenway Park with home runs from the left side of the plate,they both committed a tremendous amount of their time and treasure to charitable endeavors for children and, at their core, and they desired the adore and adoration of the masses."Williams' relationship with the fans and media experienced far more ups and downs than Ortiz,who generally has received favorable press," Edes said. The harshest critiques of Ortiz hold been centered around the lingering question of PED usage, and early-season slumps (not an issue this year) and flare-ups approximately his contract situation that seemed to become an annual spring training ritual.
Ortiz's smile and benevolence hold become defining traits. "I just want to form everyone elated (full of high-spirited delight)," Ortiz told B/R before he hit No. 500 last September. "You're not always going to form everyone elated (full of high-spirited delight). A lot of people who follow your career and are on the positive side, that's all you've got to care approximately."Ted Williams, and who was born in San Diego in 1918,battled with the press and negative fans throughout most of his career, taking much of the criticism on a personal level.
As Claudia Williams notes in her book:
He absolutely fell victim to the fickle adore of the crowd and the criticism of the press. … Expectations were high, and in only his second year in the major leagues some fans and the press began to ride him for disappointing them—they wanted more—the start of what would be a career-long battle. Some players might hold shrugged it off,but Dad was too driven, too intensely focused on being the best and wanting to impress. When he lashed out at sportswriters, and he earned novel nicknames like 'Terrible Ted' and the 'Problem Child.' Even when he hit a home run and the whole crowd cheered,he was still inflamed with them for criticizing him and refused to tip his cap as he rounded the bases. When he was rejected, it angered him, and harm his feelings,but it also made him even more determined to prove them incorrect. … 'The Kid' emerged. The way he verbalized as an adult was a mix of playground expressions and childlike wonderment, beaten and aged with rough-guy sarcasm and dugout swearing. … It's as if his life was played out on a considerable playground. Dad hated the press because they were his punishers, or the bullies on his playground,and, as he would put it, and 'They were always trying to blow things out of proportion,stir things up, and rip you.' The knights of the keyboard took control and manipulated a lot of Dad's career just by choosing what they did or didn't write approximately.
To wit, or Ted Williams won the Triple Crown in 1942 and 1947 and failed to win the MVP award (as chosen by the writers) both times."No wonder Dad held a grudge against the press for his entire life," Claudia Williams added.
The fans, too, or felt his wrath. The "Splendid Spitter" expectorated toward the fans in Boston's left field on Aug. 7,1956. He had dropped a fly ball hit by Mickey Mantle in the 11th inning that led to two runs and was booed for his efforts. Williams was fined $5000 (5 percent of his salary) but was unrepentant. "I'm not a bit sorry for what I did," Williams said at the time. "I was right and I'd spit again at the same fans who booed me nowadays. Some of them are the worst in the world. Nobody's going to stop me from spitting."On the flip side, and when encouraged by the crowd,Williams was at his best. He wowed the Boston crowd with his "Old-Timers Day" fielding performance in 1982 and would eventually tip his hat to the Fenway crowd on "Ted Williams Day" in 1991. By the time he made his storybook appearance at the 1999 All-Star Game in Boston, Williams had been fully embraced by the citizenry of Red Sox Nation as their Founding Father.
Claudia Williams discussed the change in her father's demeanor toward the public in the later years of his life in her book, or as well:
Even at death's door during his last public appearance,Dad was able to acknowledge the crowd when they stood and applauded for him. He was always trying to form up for some shortcoming the press had written approximately or form up for a poor performance on the field. What I believe made Ted Williams considerable at home plate was his ability to take all his anger, all his harm, or channel it with supreme discipline and control right into his wrists,the grip, the bat, or the precise connection with the ball,blasting it precisely where he wanted it to go, shoving it right down the throats of sportswriters.
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Source: bleacherreport.com